Asked to do work dont normally do?

[geoffb]

Hi all,

Just wondered what the standard practice is when working as a freelancer and a client contacts you and asks for costing/timescale on a job that is not your normal area of work.

I have been asked to put together a back end functionality for a supply agency website.

The requirements are:

.Site has a list of suppliers, inc photos and info
.Customers login and select supplier, date and time
.Supplier logs in and accepts, changes customers booking
.Customers is emailed then pays
.Email sent to supplier who then supplies

Should I even bother getting involved as not worked with this type of project before, and if so what technology would I need to carry it out, surely not just a shopping cart would be enough for this.

Any views please.

geoffb

[SEOMike]

Even if I knew where to start, I'd refer that to someone else. It's not a good business idea to get yourself involved in something that's outside of your core competencies. It can sour your relation with the client, take your eye off the normal project, and frustrate you to no end. I'd recommend a competent developer that could program that for your client and charge the developer a referral fee. Make sure you get a good non-compete agreement with your newfound developer so they don't try to steal your normal line of work with the client.

[geoffb]

Personally the more I think about it, it sounds like an Escort agency website....may I be right?

[badbadmonkey]

LOL!

Take the job, there may be some side benefits...

[Yoshimi]

I think if it's something that interests you, and you would like to be able to do, and you are willing to put the unpaid time in to be able to do all of the researching & learning that you need to do to be competent to take this sort of work on now and in the future, then go for it.

If not, don't